Over the last couple of months I have managed to make two visits to the Great Smoky Mountains. As you may have read in my "publishers notes" that I plan to move to Knoxville, Tennessee. But over the last few weeks that has been altered somewhat, and I plan to move to Gatlinburg instead.
I am sure you are asking "why would I want to move to a tourist trap"? Yes I will agree that Gatlinburg is filled every day with thousands of tourist, that doesn't take away from the fact that it is at the entrance to the parkway that goes through the mountains and comes out in North Carolina.
As you can see in the image above that the town is quite humbled amongst all the majestic mountain ranges that surround it. While it is only a city ten square miles in size, it lies next to some incredible areas to view the mountains by. This image was taken atop the chair lift ride right in downtown Gatlinburg. But with a long lens you can crop out the unwanted town areas and get great shots of the mountain ranges.
During my last visit to Gatlinburg I was scouting the area for a house to buy and really fell in love with the awesome views of the Smokies I decided when I was going to head back south to Florida that I would take the parkway through the mountains instead of going back out towards Knoxville and grabbing the interstate highway.
As soon as I entered the tree covered parkway which is Highway 441, I stopped to grab a shot of the stream that was running alongside the road. As you can see in the second image of the above pop up image window. There are lots of small paved pull off areas all along the parkway for you stop stop and grab some incredible images. All the time I was just trying to image what the place would look like in the fall season just as the leaves had turned.
After only about fifteen minutes into the ride you feel like you are hundreds of miles from civilization. As you can see in this photo as compared to the previous one in this window that shows the town of Gatlinburg nested in the foothills.
For most of the weekend I had been capturing with my Tamron 19-35mm zoom. I found that I still liked the superwide format to take in as much of the scenery as possible. On several locations I also tried the 70-300mm lens but it was only good to use in scenes where I needed to crop out the immediate foreground and capture the mountain ranges off in the distance.
Clearing The Smoke
From the visit I made here a month earlier, I wondered if using a polarizer would help cut through the smoky appearance that gives the mountains there name. But sure enough, the polarizer didn't do much of anything at reducing smoke, although it sure does a great job on reducing reflective glare. But for the Smokies, you can leave that two stop loss of a filter in the gear bag.
I am sure that after living here for a while I will learn when the smoke will be the least and be able to capture images with even more clarity in the distant areas of the scene.
The scene shown in this pop up window was full view with the 19mm, while in the next image I captured the same scene with the 300mm. Both lenses worked great in this type of scene.
Then as you can see in the third image of this window that you can really crop out all the green and capture the true essence of the Smokies once you get high enough up in altitude. At almost every roadside pull off there were also not an abundance of people to get in the way of my image captures. This also meant that I could find a parking spot as well.
Not only is the image capture opportunities great on this route, but the drive is extremely fun and scenic. With the speed limit kept at 35 to 45 throughout the parkway, you never have to worry about going so fast that you will miss something. Ad that to the great amount of roadside pull off, and you can turn this one hour drive into several hours, especially if you bring a pic nic lunch.
Once you get to the top of the mountain you cross the state line into North Carolina and then the fun begins again only this time it's downhill. This is where I spotted this great scene here as shown of the wide range of visuals. The sunflowers just inches away from the camera pan all the way back into the depths of the scene and the beautiful mountain ranges.
This is probably my most favorite image of all that I captured on the trip. With the close up of the flowers and the background of the mountains, I can feel the awesome splendor of the views you can see from here. No doubt this is why it was one of the bigger parking areas to pull off the road and walk about.
Get Caught In The Trap
You don't want to pass up the chance to get caught up in the tourist rap style town of Gatlinburg while visiting the Smokies. I found a hotel with a stream running behind it. My room had a balcony overlooking the stream and the hotel also has fee high speed wireless internet. From the moment I put my camera gear and laptop in the room I felt a rush come over me of great enjoyment that lies ahead.
A lot of people probably come to Gatlinburg and never even realize that they can also take in the scenery of driving through the parkway.
One of the most photographed sites would have to be "The Old Mill" located in Pigeon Forge, just minutes away from Gatlinburg. You can use just about every lens in your gear bag to cover this old building.
If you get off the main highway through Pigeon Forge you will find some areas with great views, wildflowers and other interesting sites to capture. As you head on into Gatlinburg once again you will need to have your camera ready since the entire city is compressed into a small area and you wont want to miss out on a great image.
When you get into Gatlinburg, drive to at least street light 5, that way you will be in the middle of town and can walk in either direction to cover all the sights. When you get to the chair lift, DO NOT PASS IT BY, it is worth every penny to ride it to the top of the mountain for some great views. Be sure to take along your longest lens to help you get as close in on the mountain ranges as possible.
Located at the top of the lift is a gift shop (of course) and several view finders that you can look out into the distance with. Of course you will prefer the viewfinder of your camera that will get you images like the second one shown in this pop up window.
If you like capturing unique architecture. you will find plenty of it here in Gatlinburg. There is a lot of old world influence on every corner. For those night time images, you will again find a treasure of scenes to capture, so don't forget your tripod on this trip. But then of course once you have toured Gatlinburg, you certainly must make the drive through the mountains. If you don't want to return right after you get to the other side, you will find that you won't want to. The road comes out right into Cherokee, North Carolina. Yes you will find genuine Indian culture here, and plenty of more reasons to bring along extra film or flash cards.
Over the last couple of months I have managed to make two visits to the Great Smoky Mountains. As you may have read in my 
